Why You Should Design Mobile-First Enterprise Applications

Enterprise applications aren’t known for efficiency. And when you try to make them mobile, it usually only gets worse. Instead of adapting complex desktop platforms for smartphone and tablet screens, executives need to consider a mobile-first strategy, says, Praveen Kanyadi is Co-founder and VP Products at SpotCues.

When executives imagine enterprise software, they typically picture a desktop program. Tons of features and functions, a large screen, and numerous clicks to get where you’re going — this is the all-too-familiar experience. But what if companies started with a mobile design instead?

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While desktop applications can provide rich capabilities, employees often only use a small fraction of the available features. Simplified micro apps could likely serve the majority of necessary tasks, eliminating extra steps and streamlining the user experience. If companies started with mobile, they might find a more elegant solution from the very beginning.

Also Read: Is Your User Experience Keeping up with These 8 UX Trends for 2019?

The Future of Work Is Mobile.

Before the proliferation of mobile devices, it made sense to focus on desktop during the design process. These applications were built to consume the large amount of screen space desktops have to offer. If there was a mobile version, it was used for data consumption versus content creation or task completion. 

But as the workplace evolved, employees became more distributed. A need to support multi-channel access grew. 

As of 2018, 58% of web traffic comes from mobile and 42% of users spend time on mobile devices. It is now critical for enterprises to expand tools to other channels such as mobile and tablets. 

Responsive Design Can Only Go so Far.

The move to mobile started with responsive web design, which allowed full applications to adapt to both desktop and mobile devices. Unfortunately, this usually creates an underwhelming experience on a mobile device — cramming too much information into a small screen space. Poor UX became an accepted trade-off for the convenience of multi-channel access. 

Some enterprises started investing in native mobile apps for use by deskless workers, but usability and experience continued to suffer. Mobile design was primarily still an afterthought, leading to poor adoption of these applications. 

Organizations are beginning to realize the shift in user behavior — now investing heavily in mobile-based access to enterprise systems for employees. According to recent reports, 58% of companies are using apps to enable mobile access to critical enterprise systems. As a result, they’re seeing huge surges in productivity. Apps boosted worker productivity by 34% on average, according to one study. 

There is a long way to go, however. Enterprises continue to struggle with adoption and user experience within their mobility strategy. Desktop still rules when it comes to time spent per visit. 

Why Are Visitors Spending More Time on Desktop?

This is due to a combination of factors, but the biggest reason is that desktop makes completing tasks easier — like data entry, for example — while mobile makes content consumption easier. 

So, while trends indicate that mobile is increasingly becoming the most important channel for both consumer and business applications, enterprise strategies continue to treat as secondary. If employees could conduct more tasks on mobile, the time spent on desktop would decrease. 

Companies embarking on a digital transformation journey must start designing and architecting modern applications for mobile-first consumption. The key is to focus on the cognitive aspects of the experience. 

These are the two most important considerations for creating a mobile enterprise app that will truly benefit employee productivity:

1. Single task interface 
 

A critical aspect of moving from desktop to mobile-first design is breaking down the user interface to support ‘just one action’ at a time. 

Imagine a complex application that provides users with access to perform multiple functions, such as entering a new customer order, approving an order, or searching for an order. Instead, each of these actions deserves its own individual card (i.e., micro app) that enables users to take a specific action. 

This approach optimizes the available space for precise user tasks and easy data consumption. It also makes apps highly functional and fast. To build effective micro applications, legacy systems must be deconstructed into multiple single-task tools. 

If possible, new applications should be designed for single purpose apps from the ground up. It increases efficiency and usability, while also fitting perfectly with a micro-services architecture. 

2. Search and drill down
 

The depth of features offered by enterprise applications forces a complex navigation menu. It takes a lot of clicks and typing to get to where you need to go, which makes designing an all-inclusive mobile first experience very challenging. 

Rather than the traditional navigation menu, the mobile design should simplify the user experience with a Google-like search function for enterprise users. For example, instead of clicking-through from “Home” to “Orders” to “Select Order” to “Approve” or another required action, users should be able to quickly search “Approve order number 36321” — instantly bringing up the correct order with an approve button right there. 

This cuts the time required to complete the task into a fraction of the desktop version. Without a fixed navigational structure, the mobile experience leverages natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) to understand the user’s intent and help finish the specific task as fast as possible. 

As a complement to rapid task completion, micro apps should also provide a “drill-down” experience. In other words, the app should show only the most relevant info, like the order number, upon search, but should have a dropdown menu or link to easily navigate to additional information if desired. This avoids information overload but still keeps all pertinent details at an employee’s fingertips.

Also Read: Why UX Research Should Be a Priority for Mobile Marketers?

Smarter. Faster. Easier.

With the right mobile-first approach, enterprises can dramatically improve productivity and user experience for employees. Because micro apps focus on distinct tasks, they are not only much more efficient but also more affordable to develop and maintain. They take far less time to build compared to heavy-duty desktop software. So, companies can make an investment with less risk — scaling their mobile strategy as the concept proves itself.

It’s time for enterprises to think beyond the desktop and make the leap to mobile. The world is already there, and the organizations that focus on mobile-first will reap the rewards.